The black lily

The Black Lily

Hi. I’m a 21-year-old detective. Well not exactly. I carry a gun and solve cases. But I don’t run about lawns and look at cigarette ends. I go on dangerous rescue missions with my friends Hana and Malhaar. This IS the story of me and the Black Lily. Oh no, in all of this I forgot to tell you my name. I’m Robin Jones from Australia.

 

 

 

CHAPTER 1

Arrivals and Disappearances

I stood by the jetty, staring out onto the horizon. I came here every day to watch the sunset, which was heavenly on this part of the island. I was on my island named Daksh, which was located a few miles north of Havelock.

I ran a detective agency there and my full life ran around the agency. Over the past few years, this had become my home. Occasionally, I travelled through India for various cases. I had fought crime on many occasions. I had just returned from one such case in Kashmir, which was about an old lady’s untimely and tragic death. She had been brutally murdered with just her house keys. But that is a story for another time. As I was saying, it had been barely two days since I had arrived home to see everything in a complete mess. Papers trashed, tables upturned, closets broken. It took me a while to set things right. Now that I had managed to do that, I was free to think about this occurrence. Not only had they ruined my house and agency, but they had also taken with them the Black Lily. The black lily was a stone flower made of black obsidian. Legally the stone was mine. It had been passed down for centuries in my family until my great – grandfather had ended up alone and unable to trust others. So, he hid the stone somewhere in the Nicobar Islands and the secret died with him. I had to find it as it was a priceless relic.

One might argue that I was foolish to leave the lily alone on an island, with absolutely no one to guard it but of course I’m not that stupid. I had kept it in a vault in the basement which was merged into a wall. So, unless you knew exactly where it was you could not 0pen it. It had one point that needed to be pressed for it to come into view. Then there was the vault itself. There were a million different combinations. It would take a year to crack it and I checked the vault every day at 10 in the night. On t0p of all of this, the basement itself was hidden underneath a layer of sand.

I sighed. If my enemy could get through all these security measures and then crack my code, steal the lily and escape, then they were very smart indeed. That meant that I could not do this alone. I needed my friends now, if ever. I took out my phone and scrolled down to the bottom for I had not called them for a while. I dialled her number.

Asmi responded immediately, ” Ya?”

“The black lily’s gone”

“Stolen?”

“That’s what it looks like “

“Be there in 5”

I hung up and was just about to call Malhaar when I noticed a boat trying to dock.

“hey”, I said “you aren’t allowed here”

The boat sailed still closer. Fine. I waited until the boat docked before starting on him.

“Didn’t you hear me? You aren’t – “

I cut myself of, noticing that he was hurt. He was bleeding severely. I helped him get off the boat and looked around. I was glad to see Jennifer running towards us.

“He’s been shot in the stomach”, I told her.

Just then I saw Asmi’s boat docking. I felt relief coarse through me. If Asmi was here, then he was safe. She was the best doctor he could get.

Even in all the chaos I could not help but notice that he had jet black hair and light brown eyes that were currently scrunched up in agony.

CHAPTER 2

A Medical Mishap

I was waiting outside the 0peration theatre for Asmi. When she finally emerged, we went to the café for a coffee. I was waiting for her to speak but it didn’t seem like would be the one to start the conversation. So,

“What happened to him?”, I asked her.

“Bullet wound”, she said shortly,

“Can I see him?”, its only goanna take a few minutes”

She reluctantly agreed and led the way to his room.

I asked for his medical report and began to read. When I reached the last sheet, my eyes widened.

“Did you read this?” I asked her, striving to keep calm.

She didn’t respond.

“Well, it says here that his blood has traces of poison. And worse it’s the one I invented. This means that we have a mole. And you. Why didn’t you tell me?”

Asmi just stood there without saying a word. This was the one thing I found highly irritating about her. She would just stand there until I went mad.

Not an apology out of her mouth anyway.

“so”, I said “why didn’t you tell me about the poison?”

“I guess I’m sorry”, she said almost

half-heartedly.

“You guess? You guess? -, ” I cut myself off and started again. “Did you read the report? “

“Yes of course I did”, she said in despair.” It’s just…”

“What?”, I asked her forcefully” don’t you understand? The black lily is missing! He’s dying! You have one job. Even that you manage to mess up!”

I was about to storm out of the room when I heard Asmi say, ” I’m sorry!”

“Sorry? You do know how deadly dark-sharp poison can be?”

“No, I do not, but you do.”

I glared at her and pulled out an old journal and a few reports. I shoved them at her and said:

“a few examples and the method’s in the journal. He has about half an hour before he dies.”

Asmi came out in exactly half an hour by which time I had calmed down enough to talk normally.

“I assume he’s alive.” I said as an afterthought.

“yep”

“Go up to bed. You need some rest” I said and turned away.

CHAPTER  3

Malhaar and Hana

I went down to the jetty which was the only calm place but perhaps not the safest. I was in full range of anyone who wanted to kill me and believe me that category would go on and on. I had so far slung 48 criminals in jail (main criminals, I don’t count sidekicks). 7 of them were political so you can say I have some experience with law (actually Malhaar fought that case for me). I have also brought down every single one of these guys (and women ). I had always been the brain. Until …

Chapter 2.5

I’m not sure what this is called. It might be a chapter or a bit of a mid-book single that that I could not find a way to encode into the book. I am about to tell you something important, so you at the back – pay attention. Here goes:

 

I met Malhaar on September the 7th of 2022. I am pleased to say that at that point I thoroughly intimidated her. We were small and stupid. Our only worries were homework, exams and who was who’s best friend. So when we met she thought I was going to steal her position as self – appointed group ‘leader’. we were twelve 11-year-olds  playing hide and seek. We don’t need a leader for that!

I guess she felt intimidated because I had this confidence about my person. A sort of force if you will. I didn’t know I was anything to her. I didn’t even know her name till October.

But I guess things change. I was just playing with her as you would play with a toy, using her mind games on her. But somewhere along the way I started liking her. But I have no openness with her. I have to think so much before each sentence and when I finally voice it out it still sounds stupid. 

But she’s nice. And she’s too you know. No, you don’t know. Forget about it. Let’s just get on with the book.

I remembered that I had to call Malhaar. After I hung up :

“when’s she coming”, said a voice that could not be more welcome at such a time.

“Hana!!!”, I cried joyfully.

“What are you doing here? How are you?” I said in excitement.

Hana used to be one of my agents before she got a job in USA.

“No time for chit-chat”, she said urgently, “get in the boat.”

“its my island”, I told her

“oh”, she said “then the distress call?”

“the black lily got stolen”

“I know that silly.”, she said “are you okay?”

“yeah, somewhat”, I said, “come inside”

“nice place”

“shut up”

She giggled and followed me into the business centre.

“look , I think I know where the black lily is”

“where?”, I asked eagerly

“With Arjun”

I slumped against the back of my chair. Arjun was too dangerous, but I had to try.

“fine”

“no, no, no, no, no, no”, she said in distress”you’re going to go there, aren’t you? “

“yep”

“I’m coming with you”

“no”

“It wasn’t a question” she said in sing-song voice and flounced off.

XXXXXX

Mlhaar was due today. I had already talked to Asmi about it and she had reluctantly agreed to go.

Malhaar arrived at 6:00 pm .at exactly 5:55 pm we received a radio saying: “be there in 5. Tell the guards will you? I’d rather not be shot down.”

I know right?

So when she arrived, our conversation went like this:

Me: Hi (boring)

Malhaar: Hiiiii (sarcastic tone)

Me: we have a case (sad right?)

Malhaar: what is it?

Me: blah, blah, blah, blah (whatever the case is. I just didn’t feel like writing it all over again)

Malhaar: oh (more reaction!!!)

Me: ok (more reaction!!!)

Malhaar: where’s asmi? (her again?)

Me: inside(where else?)

Malhaar went ‘inside’ to see Asmi and I went to my room and brought my oars and went down to the jetty. I boarded my boat and rowed off. I sighed and looked forward.

I was where I belonged.